Dandelions *Barry Keoghan*

Chapter 13:

Ailidh sighed as she checked the time on her phone again, this lecture had been dragging on forever and it was still no closer to finishing or so it seemed. 1 o'clock was slowly getting closer and she couldn't wait to get out of class and meet up with Barry for lunch. Class was more boring than ever and most of what was being discussed she had already done the year before in London so she wasn't really paying to much attention. She also hadn't seen Barry since she got all her negative comments and she was a little worried about what he may think because of the article and all the social media attention they had had in the last couple of days. She hadn't really talked to him since her apology about the article and agreeing on lunch for today but she hoped he wasn't mad at her for all the issues she'd caused recently. Even her agent was annoying her with an insufferable amount of messages asking her what her status was with Barry and if they intended to make it public if they started dating. She even went as far as to say that dating may be one of the best things for her career which Ailidh thought was just ridiculous. When 1 o'clock finally came and the lecturer dismissed them Ailidh wasted no time in packing her stuff up and quickly leaving the classroom. She waved goodbye to the few people she had managed to meet in her classes and walked outside breathing in the fresh air for the first time all day. The weather had been pretty bad lately but today the sun was actually shining for once, though it was cold the sun made it a lot nicer to be outside and she didn't mind the 20 minute walk to the cafe she was meeting Barry at.

Music was blaring through her headphones as she walked through Dublin, a small smile on her face as she enjoyed the weather and the atmosphere of her new city. She reached the cafe pretty quickly and spotted Barry and Koda immediately, they were sat at a small table in the corner of the terrace both enjoying the sunshine which made her smile even more. She waved at her new made friend as she approached them letting out a sigh of relief when she sat down and could finally put her way to heavy bag on the floor. She'd been in class from 9 and had needed a different book for each class as well as her laptop so her bag was pretty full and heavy. Barry smiled and handed her a menu looking at her bag with a look of surprise "what are you carrying in there your whole apartment?" He asked as a way of greeting "ha ha ha. No, just like 5000 books and my laptop, I had a lot of classes today." She explained while scanning over the menu, she wouldn't need to long to decide as she had already looked up the menu the night before at night, she always liked to know what there was to offer at a new place she would be eating at so she had studied the whole menu the night before and already made her decision.

Barry nodded also looking at his menu and they sat in silence for a while until a waitress came to take their order, once they had ordered Ailidh looked up at Barry and gave him a small smile "I just wanted to apologize again for all the shit that stupid article caused. I don't know how it's been for you but my agent has been all over me asking me a lot of questions about us and what not." She said once again getting annoyed by everything that was happening, she wasn't necessarily hurt by what had been said but she hated how it affected not just her but her friends as well. Barry sighed as he nodded "yeah my agent has been asking me a lot of questions about us but you don't have to worry about that okay? Its not your fault I mean there's two people in this friendship. We are still friends right?" "Of course we're still friends! You won't get rid of me that easily, besides I don't really care what people say about me I just hate when they have to involve my friends, people who have done nothing wrong at all." Ailidh quickly countered, she really didn't want to loose Barry as a friend. "You haven't done anything wrong either Ailidh you know that right? I mean hanging out with someone of the opposite gender doesn't immediately mean dating and also does not allow for the kind of article that this blog wrote about you." Barry was quick to defend his friend, worried she would feel too guilty or upset. Ailidh smiled and nodded and with that they left the topic of the article and moved to more exciting topics such as their next projects and Ailidh's siblings who would be visiting in about three weeks time and she was very excited to see. Despite living in a different country for several years she was very close to both of them and therefore couldn't wait to see them again. They also talked about her co-stars from peaky blinders and when she mentioned Joe would be visiting in a little over a week Barry insisted on meeting him.

Their food was great and after they finished eating and had paid, Barry insisted on paying to make up for all the trouble he had caused he said but Ailidh wouldn't let him. In the end they decided he would pay for lunch and she could pay for the ice cream they were getting after their walk. The weather was too nice to go back to their apartments and as Ailidh was done with classes for the day and Barry had no more meetings or other engagements they could spend the afternoon together. Koda happily jogged in front of them also enjoying the nice weather as the two friends talked, slowly making their way over to Stephen's green one of Dublin's parks which was packed due to the nice weather but still a perfect place for them to go with Koda. As promised Ailidh bought them some ice cream and they sat in a more quiet spot to enjoy them. Barry seemed to be worried about something, or thinking about something as he was very quiet and looked a little nervous. Ailidh picked up on it pretty soon but decided to wait until they were sat down and had a little more privacy before asking what was wrong. "You okay?" She asked eventually a little afraid of his reaction. In her mind she was sure that he had changed his mind about still being friends and wanted nothing more to do with her, but she also kind of knew that was just her mind overthinking things as he had been the one to ask if they were still friends.

Barry took a deep breath before looking at the girl and answering her question "yeah I just wanted to ask you something. So ehm, we've been hanging out quite a bit lately and I really enjoyed that, I really like you and I was wondering if... if you would want to go on a date with me?" Ailidh was shocked for a minute or so before she laughed more out of relief than anything else "Oh thank god I thought you didn't want to be friends anymore or something. Of course I'll go on a date with you, I mean we hang out all the time anyway so why wouldn't I?" Barry smiled in relief "I know but this time I want to do it right, so I will be picking you up and taking you somewhere nice." Ailidh smiled as she stroked Koda's head, who had pushed himself in between the two desperate for attention "Sure as long as you tell me what you have planned. I'm not the biggest fan of surprises." Barry chuckled and scratched his head " I hadn't really thought that far ahead yet but I will let you know as soon as I have decided on what we will do. Don't worry I never really liked the whole not telling a girl where your going thing." After the hard question was out of the way Barry was much more relaxed and actually able to enjoy his ice cream and time with his friend, no longer worried she didn't share in his feelings and would reject him. They stayed in the park for most of the afternoon talking and throwing a tennis ball for Koda to fetch until it got colder and Ailidh needed to get home to get some work done for uni. She had another photoshoot later that week so needed to get ahead with some work to not het behind, something she hated.